I’ve always had a soft spot for Ravan, that ‘rakshasha’ with the ten heads and have often wondered how he dealt with his problem of plenty: what if one head disagreed with the other nine; or what if another wanted to burst into song at the same time as the others were throwing a tantrum? Our `shashtras’ say he was an erudite man who was a prisoner of his own magnificent ego: how does this character get past his weaknesses and own his strengths?

`Mahayodha Rama’ claims that this is the Ramayan from his, Ravan’s, point of view. I was immediately interested, but my expectations that it was going to be a delightfully subversive take on the epic were dashed almost as soon as it started.

A super visual of Ravan meditating on the top of a mountain, and getting his wishes granted by Brahma leads to the same old treatment of the story. There are just teeny flashes of modern wit (wife Mandodari scolds Ravan for leaving his wet towel around, haha), but the rest is the same old loud rendition of lines and songs.

Some of the animation is eye-catching, but it is drowned by the sheer noise. Do we really need to be deafened at all times?